Tag: Disney

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Mark's 21st Century Movie Milestones

Number 9…

Months ago, my friends and I had a night where we had fun making power point presentations on anything we wanted.

I generated positive feedback for my presentation as I managed to dream cast our cohorts into Disney characters. While I did not do a slide for myself, I was asked at the end which character I would best associate with myself. As someone who does not do well socially all the time but is also a hopeless romantic who yearns for romance, I easily identified with the titular character of my favorite Disney/Pixar film to date, WALL-E.

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1 1/2 Stars

Lilo & Stitch (2025)

While I never saw the full movie, I saw enough clips on YouTube to see why most people agree movie remakes don’t get as unnecessary (let alone bad) as 1998’s remake of the Hitchcock masterpiece Psycho. 

Apparently, when asked why he did the (nearly) shot for shot remake in the first place, director Gus Van Sant responded “So no one else had to.” This mindset is the only silver lining I can think of for Disney with their live action remakes, whether good or bad, and the remake of Lilo & Stitch falls in the latter category.

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2 1/2 Stars Movies

Snow White (2025)

In the last decade of Disney Live Action Remakes, there was a time where I thought remaking Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was forbidden.

The House of Mouse would not even exist today if the 1937 classic (the first of its kind) did not prevail the expectations, so naturally one would suspect that all of Disney knows that some form of respect is due it.

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4 Stars

Inside Out 2 (2024)

The best of the Disney/Pixar films have been able to somewhat shape our views of the world, regardless of age.

As a kid, the aftermath of Toy Story had me admittedly silently trying to sneak a look at my toys, to catch them in the act of being alive. It took me a while to stop looking at a fish tank in a doctors office differently thanks to Finding Nemo, or what it would be like talking with my ancestors after Coco. And yes, even after nearly a decade, I still sometimes wonder what the emotions in my head are like after the original Inside Out.

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3 1/2 Stars Movies

Wish (2023)

Just as I was a few minutes away from the theater to see Wish (the 62nd animated feature from the company), I thought to myself: How many times has that word been used in their past films?

Songs that came to mind include “I’m Wishing” from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), “A Dream is a Wish your Heart makes” from Cinderella (1950), and, of course, the king of all Disney songs, “When you wish upon a star” from Pinocchio (1940). If one were to make a word cloud of the dialogue (and songs) in Disney films, “Wish” would most likely turn up more than any other word (with the possible exception of “Dream”). With that logic, it seemed a movie like Wish would be inevitable to be released on the centennial of the most known movie studio in history.

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2 1/2 Stars

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

I know I was not alone in catching up with the other Indy films before the latest would drop.

A quick overview:

  1. Raiders of the Lost Ark: One of the very best adventure movies ever made.
  2. The Temple of Doom: Fun (thank you Short Round), despite its dark themes and cultural depictions.
  3. The Last Crusade: One of the best father-son duos in cinematic history.
  4. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Honestly, some decent moments and set pieces (despite falling completely flat at the conclusion).

Despite how you rank the films, one thing is universal: the role of Henry “Indiana” Jones, Jr. should only be played by Harrison Ford. To recast him would indeed seem nothing short of sacrilegious, meaning we “needed” at least one more Indy film as Ford is now an octogenarian. 

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3 1/2 Stars

Elemental (2023)

(A recent text exchange with my little brother Connor)

Connor: (Star Wars Episode III) Revenge of the Sith is 18 years old!

Me: Finding Nemo is 20 years old.

Connor: Touché

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3 1/2 Stars

The Little Mermaid (2023)

Not long into The Little Mermaid, I wondered if I should now be disqualified from reviewing any more of the live action remakes.

As a nineties kid, I am not alone in saying how much Disney meant to me, especially when I think back to the VHS collection I had (no one had a better VHS case like Disney: those things felt bulletproof). Now we are in the remake stage.

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4 Stars Movies

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 (2023)

“Once more with feeling.”

I can’t remember the last time an MCU film truly lived up to the tagline on its poster. 

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3 Stars

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quatumania (2023)

It wasn’t until after viewing Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania that I realized we are already into Phase 5 of the MCU. 

Admittedly, the films of Phase Four have not been the best of the now thirty plus film series (and multiple TV shows). While I admit to not being the biggest of fans of the first two Ant-Man films (I am up for giving the first film a retry), launching the third film as the start of the new Phase seems daring in a sense, as if to make the public know there is still more quality left to milk out (and since we still have yet to see the MCU versions of the Fantastic Four and X-Men, there is no sign of this train stopping anytime soon). 

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